![]() ![]() 18 The Arab population lives mostly in towns and villages, most of them located in the northern Galilee area, while the Jewish population is more urban, and the Ultra-Orthodox population lives almost entirely in urban municipalities in the Center area. 17 Compared with the general Jewish population, Ultra-Orthodox and Arab municipalities are socio-economically deprived. ![]() The allocation of each municipality and methodology is available on their website. In Israel, the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) assigns each municipality to one of 10 socio economic clusters from 1 (most deprived) to 10 (least deprived). Each community tends to live in separate localities. These groups comprise the Israeli population alongside smaller groups such as the Druze and Circassians. The three largest population groups in Israel are the non-ultra-orthodox Jewish population (thereafter called “general Jewish”), and the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish and Arab (mainly Muslim, including Bedouin, and Christian) populations. By 04/01/21, for example, more than 30% of vaccinated individuals were under the age of 60 16 despite only a minority (such as healthcare workers and other emergency response personnel) being eligible. 10, 15 Finally, resourceful individuals have at times succeeded in getting vaccinated outside of eligibility criteria, for example by waiting for leftover doses outside of clinics. ![]() In addition to age eligibility, emergency, healthcare, defense forces and education workers and in late January also high school pupils have been prioritized for vaccination. In early March 2020, they became eligible for a single dose. 14 Until early March 2020, individuals who had evidence of COVID-19 infection and had recovered were not eligible for vaccination. Those over the age of 60 first became eligible on 20/12/20, 10 followed by those over 55 on 12/01/21, 11 those over 35 on 28/01/21 12 over 16 on 13 and finally teenagers over 12 on 06/06/21. Community health clinics are located in almost every municipality in Israel and all citizens and residents, by law, have to be registered with one. Vaccinations against COVID in Israel has taken place in community health centres (HMOs), hospitals, ad-hoc vaccination centres in repurposed facilities such as stadiums and sport centres, and mobile units reaching remote and small communities. 7 In early June 2020, the importation in Israel of the delta variant, against which the effectiveness of the BNT16b2 mRNA vaccine is lower, 8 led to an increase in incidence, although effectiveness against severe illness and death remains high and the incidence of severe cases and case fatality rates remains low. Reasons for this success include Israel's small size, a centralized national system of government, experience in managing large-scale national emergencies, the organizational, IT and logistical capacities of Israel's community-based health care providers, and the mobilization of special government funding for vaccine purchase and distribution. 6 The benefits of such high vaccine coverage were seen, with a sharp decrease in transmission and incidence since March 2020 6 despite a gradual easing of control measures. 6 By this date Israel had vaccinated 61♶% of the population with one dose of the BNT16b2 mRNA vaccine and 55♸% with the second dose, including over 92% of individuals over the age of 60, 6 the highest proportion in the world. Israel has not been spared by the pandemic and as of Jreported 846,327 cases and 6,438 deaths. The emergence of safe and effective vaccines in December 2020, 2, 3, 4 with more at various stages of development 5 offer new hope for controlling the pandemic. Despite a range of measures such as social distancing, masks, mass testing, surveillance and repeated lockdowns, implemented to varying degrees of stringency by almost every country in the world, the pandemic continued to spread. By July 2021, The COVID-19 pandemic, which was detected in China in December 2019 and rapidly spread globally, had infected over 187 million and killed at least 4 million individuals, 1 disrupting trade, travel, education, and the economy on an unprecedented scale. ![]()
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